Emancipation

“Reform and opening” started from the top with the seminal leadership transition from Mao to Deng. Deng Xiaoping heralded China’s boom in late 1978 when he called for experiments with “economic democracy” and “emancipation” from orthodox ideas. But the boom was not simply a top-down, state-orchestrated phenomenon. In fact, the biggest contribution of the state, especially in the first phase of growth, was to get out of the way. Farmers were liberated from collectives, sparking a wildfire of capitalism in the countryside. Urban markets and industry were freed to “grow out of the plan,” making profits on surplus production and creating powerful incentives for rapid growth.

Deng's Visit to The US Resulted in Capitalism

The Resurgent Elite Legitimized Deng's Government

Beijing Back Then Was Like Pyongyang

Deng Understood That the World Had Changed

Jin Canrong

Senior Fellow, IAS, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Jin Canrong is currently a senior fellow at the Institute of American Studies (IAS) at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Trained in political science, Jin got his Ph.D. from Beijing University, his MA from the Graduate School of CASS, and his BA from the Department of International Studies at Fudan University. He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University and at Rutgers University. His research interests include the US Congress, intergovernmental relations in America, civil society and democracy, and Sino-US relations.

He has also served as Deputy Director of the Beijing Pacific Institute for International Strategy Studies, the first non-governmental research institute in the field of international relations in China; Deputy Director of the Center for American Studies at the People’s University of China; Special Adviser for the Research Bureau of the National People’s Congress of China; and Executive editor-in-chief of the Pacific Journal, an academic quarterly published by the Pacific Society of China.

I should say that one prominent feature of China’s reform is that China’s reform was accompanied by an open door [policy]. That’s basically the difference between Deng Xiaoping’s reform and Nikita Khrushchev’s reform in the former Soviet Union. Khrushchev’s reform was just reform. At that time, they didn't really appreciate the model effect of the United States. So, everybody knows the funny debate between him, Nikita Khrushchev, and Richard Nixon, right? "The Kitchen Debates." At that time, the Soviets were really very confident in themselves. They believed that, in 1980, they would enter a new stage of so-called fada shehui zhuyi, advanced socialism and that in year 2000, they would reach the stage of communism. That’s very funny in man-made imagination, but I think Deng Xiaoping was very realistic and knew the reality of both the outside world and China.